Pens choke out the Ducks

Last night was sort of a look if the Penguins hadn't had won the 2005 draft lottery...And while it wasn't pretty, they got just enough to win...And hey, they got through the game with only one player getting knocked out with injury, so that's a plus.

• Obviously with Sidney Crosby's injury it all starts with Evgeni Malkin. Geno stepped it up, he did uncharacteristically well in the faceoff circle (8 of 14), was credited with the Pens only two takeaways, three shots on net and two assists. He also played 24:25 and only one other forward played more than 20 minutes.
• Matt Cooke really ate his Wheaties. The Penguins were playing a gritty, nasty, "not pretty" type of game, fitting right into Cooke's philosphy as well. And his goals (whipping shots on net, spinning bodies around) were a good reflection of a job well done.
• In our recap we predicted a lot of minutes for Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik. After Orpik left the game early with an injury, Whitney must have taken a deep breath and said "here we go". Whits got a game high 29:39 as he picked up most of the slack and did well.
• From the things you don't see everyday file: Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer combined for a -4.
• Chris Minard registered a team high five shots on goal and looked the most comfortable he ever has in the NHL. One gets the feeling if he keeps chipping at it he's going to breakthrough. The question is, can he make the most of the opportunity before forwards return from injury and time runs out.
• And how about Hal Gill with his first goal since March 16, 2008? That's a 60 drought (including the playoff run). It was a perfect example of the Penguins mentality: just get the puck to the net whenever you can. Credit Jordan Staal for the faceoff win and Gill for unleashing the rocket.

So an important two points in the Penguins pocket but also the confidence to know that when they play well and buckle down defensively they are good enough to compete and beat any team in the league.

We noted that the five game stretch before the All-Star game could be pivotal in the season. The Penguins are now 2-1 in the highlighted segment. Now if they could just show up for an afternon game...

M*A*S*H Unit

The PG reports the residual damage, and it's not pretty. 20% of players that pulled on a uniform last game aren't able to go due to injury (that's four players for you non math whizzes). Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Rob Scuderi and Maxime Talbot, all out with various non-disclosed upper (Scuderi, Talbot) or lower (Crosby, Letang) body injuries.

Add them to Pascal Dupuis (leg/groin injury), faceoff king Mike Zigomanis (shoulder?), Ruslan "Ivan Drago" Fedotenko (hand) and Sergei Gonchar (shoulder) and that's 8 players (or 44% of the non-goalie lineup) that would be out there, if healthy.


Earlier this week the Columbus newspaper blog Puck Rakers compiled a list of man-games lost to injury. Pittsburgh came in fifth on the list for quantity and would have to rank higher than that for quality of players missed. As an example, Philadelphia had 213 missed man games to injury but that includes the entire seasons for human pylons Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher, two players stashed away on long-term injured reserve that the Flyers are not exactly missing.

Regardless, there's still a game to play with the players that are left. The seven minute man, Janne Pesonen, is back in town...Will Therrien be forced to give him a chance to sink or swim? At this point, why the hell not. It's not like any other winger is showing any offensive prowess (save Petr Sykora of course). Pittsburgh's Own Bill Thomas is back in the show as well. Thomas only has 14 points in 33 AHL games, unusual for a guy who scored 52 points in 75 AHL games last season. We think that they have been using him in more of a checking role and he probably is going to have to switch his game around in order to make it work at the highest level. It'll be interesting to see if he could have anything to offer.

Something we've been thinking about
--If you want to fire the coach, what are you going to do better? Here's how we'd line 'em up tonight:

Pesonen-Malkin-Sykora
Kennedy-Staal-Satan
Cooke-Jeffrey-Minard
Bissonnette-Thomas-Godard

Whitney-Orpik
Gill-Goligoski
Eaton-Boucher (shudder)

Yeah this is asking a lot of a guy like Pesonen to go from riding the buses in the minors to playing with the NHL’s point scoring leader, but Pesonen was a point scoring leader in his league last year, it’s not like he doesn’t have skill. Obviously if it’s clear Pesonen is out of place an adjustment to move someone else up (like Tyler Kennedy or Miroslav Satan) could be made.

For that very reason, it's time to end the Satan banishment to the lower lines. Sure he's been largely invisible in recent weeks and worthy of demotion. But on a night like tonight where so much firepower is out of the lineup, it's not a time for that. He's got to get more ice and he's got to make something happen with it.

And how much confidence do you have knowing that every member of the bottom four defensemen has been healthy scratches for multiple recent games. Hope the Whitney/Orpik combo is ready for big minutes, they’re surely going get them in all situations.